Uncle Rick's Guide to
Cheap & Free VST Hosts for Windows

These are products that run on the Windows® platform (98, XP or whatever) and can host VST plugins. If you don't know what that is, go to Steinberg for some info, and go to KVR-VST for more info and reviews, etc. Virtual Studio Technology allows you to plug audio processing modules and software synthesizers together. It's like having a recording studio inside your computer. All those modules are hosted together in a "VST host" application. Steinberg's apps are the originals and the flagships, and they're pricey. But there are other VST hosts, some of which are cheap, and some of which are free.

The VST host that I actually use in my studio is VAZ Modular 2.54. VAZ is a good solid host that works really well. It also is itself a polyphonic modular synthesizer with very good microtonal capability. It's about US $285, which isn't cheap, but since you get a synth with it, that's OK. (If you're looking for a total all-in-one microtonal synth that isn't VST, try Midicode.)

There are other VST hosts, some of which are fairly popular among hobbyists and so forth. But if you're trying to do something serious with a host, it can be frustrating trying to find one that actually works and doesn't require a lot of tedium to get running, or isn't lame in some obvious way.

I was looking in particular for a host that could take more than 16 channels of MIDI input -- i.e., could be used with a loop-back like MIDI OX from an application like Coda's Finale, which can send MIDI data to more than 16 channels. So, that's the main criterion I used to evaluate VST hosts: can it take > 16 channels, and does it have a mixer. All of these hosts can be found by going to KVR-VST and using their search capability, so I won't bother to give much info. KVR-VST is a really great resource for finding VST plugins and hosts. Check it out!

Without further ado, here is my frank opinion of several VST hosts, in tabular form. Please see also the Notes section below for further info on some hosts.

Host	Maker	Approx Price	Would I buy it as-is?	Input > 16 MIDI chan	Can mix > 16 MIDI chan	Buggy?
Aodix	ArGuru	Free	-	NO	NO	?
Bidule	Plogue	Free	-	YES	DIY	YES
Chainer	Xlutop	$60	NO	NO	NO	?
Console	Art Teknika	$54	NO	YES	DIY	NO
FL Studio	Image Line	$50-$150	NO	NO	YES	NO
Forte	brainspawn	$100	No	YES	NO	NO
Music Studio Generation 6	Magix	$50	Maybe	?	?	YES
Muzys	Muzys	$?	Maybe	NO	NO	?
Psycle	Psycle	Free	-	NO	NO	?
MultitrackStudio	Bremmers Audio	$70-$100	NO	NO	NO	YES
Storm 3.0	Arturia	$149	Maybe	NO	NO	?
SynthEdit	Synthedit	$20	Maybe	NO	NO	NO
VAZ	Software Technology	$285	YES	NO	NO	NO
Virtual Mixing Console	Spin Audio	$59	YES	NO	NO	?

In the table above, "DIY" means "do it yourself". In other words, the application has an environment in which it's possible to make a mixer out of little modules that you plug together, and it might work for your purposes; but it doesn't have a ready-made mixer and it's tedious.

The most promising of the breed (just a mixer that can host VST instruments) I think is Spin Audio's Virtual Mixing Console. Just what it says it is, with solid featues. Yeah, I'd buy this one, if I didn't already own VAZ Modular... and I may buy it anyway. VMC requires ASIO drivers, so if you don't have any, forget it.

As I get time to evaluate more demos, I'll keep updating this list.

Other Notes and Comments on Selected Hosts

FL Studio (Fruityloops) can supposedly mix 48 channels, but it apparently can't get MIDI input on more than one channel! Not even 16 channels. (I also couldn't get it to do anything but play one note (low d) in a soft-synth. No matter what note I played, if it wasn't low d, no sound came out.) So, it can't take input from more than one single-channel MIDI source, and is thus useless for connecting to anything else. If FL Studio could get decent MIDI input, it would work really well for me, because it has what appears to be a nice mixer and effects.

"Console" from Art Teknika can take >16 channels of MIDI input, but it doesn't have a mixer that can mix more than 4 stereo channels at once. (It uses the freebie CMX844 VST mixer, which is rather OK, but needs a UI update. It errs too much on the whiz-bang realistic look and not enough on the functional visible-on-screen look.) If "Console" had a better mixer, it would be useful enough.

The "Forte" (version 1.2) can take a lot of MIDI input, but it doesn't have any mixer. Nothing! It depends on (yuck) channel volume! If Forte had a mixer, it would be perfect. As-is, it's lame for studio work.

With Psycle I couldn't get any sound output at all. Seems totally lame to me. Maybe someone else can get it to work, but I couldn't!

Aodix is really just a sequencer, not a very sophisticated VST host.

Magix has an update, Music Studio 2004, that seems better than the Gen 6 product that I have. But they don't appear to have an on-line demo version of it.

 

Last updated: March 12, 2005